I used to be Britain's longest-running wrestling blogger. Then I got a proper job.

Tuesday, 2 August 2011

ROH Revolution USA - DVD Review

It’s time to step into Ring of Honor territory once again, and this time we’re going back to this past May, the day before Revolution Canada, when the Kings of Wrestling faced the American Wolves in the main event of Revolution USA.

The show began with grudge match action as Tommaso Ciampa, accompanied by the various Embassy cronies, went up against Homicide.

Homicide was looking to get a measure of revenge against Prince Nana’s latest crown jewel in this short and sweet encounter, and Ciampa did a pretty good job against his more experienced opponent, with a little help from his friends.

The notorious 187 made a great comeback, but when the Embassy’s lawyer R.D. Evans distracted him the other cronies threw a foreign object into the ring, which Ciampa used to take Homicide down. A three count later and it was all over.

Extra curricular activities followed as the Embassy tried to inflict more damage, only for Homicide to chase most of them away, except for Ernesto Osiris, who ended up on the receiving end of a cop killer. It was only the arrival of more referees that stopped Homicide from inflicting more damage on the former Dirty Ernie.

The singles action continued as Michael Elgin, accompanied by Truth Martini, went up against rising star Andy Ridge.

This match had one purpose, Elgin’s continued portrayal as a monster. It worked. Ridge managed to get in some good offence, and his kicks looked great, but at the end of the day his speed and power just weren’t a match for Elgin’s power. The guy just looked freakin’ awesome.

But while Elgin did a good job with his display of power, he also did a good job of making Ridge look like a threat as the rookie came close to getting the win a number of times. But as he came off the top rope for an attempted hurricanrana Elgin caught him and took him down with a sit down power bomb for the three count. ROH really do have a great find here.

Next up was Steve Corino as he came down to the ring to talk about his continued rehabilitation. However, just a few moments later his old pals Mike Bennett and Bob Evans came out, with Bennett trying to push Corino off the wagon once again with a big right hand.

It was then that Grizzly Redwood came out for his scheduled match with Bennett, almost getting the win within seconds with a roll up. The littlest lumberjack put up a spirited fight but in the end his efforts came to nothing as Bennett took him down with a pile driver.

As Bennett celebrated his win Corino slid back into the ring to check on Redwood, only for Bennett to leave him laying on the mat once again.

The first tag team match of the show saw the All Night Express, Kenny King and Rhett Titus, facing Jay and Mark Briscoe in a first blood match.

This turned out to be one of the most heated brawls I’ve seen this year. They began by beating the hell out of each other around the ringside area, ramming each other into anything made of metal, before they eventually made their way into the ring.

Normal tag team action resumed for a short while until the inevitable break down as they sought to bust each other open, and the blood eventually flowed when King’s jumping double knee strikes to the back sent Mark head first into the barricade. Seconds later Jay halted Titus’ flying attempt with a chair to the face.

But while the referee was trying to sort out the action he failed to notice Mark’s blood covered face on the other side of the ring. Briscoe wisely hid his face as King attempted to take his brother down in the ring. It was then that Titus got to his feet, and it wasn’t long before the referee saw that he was wearing the crimson mask.

He immediately called for the bell, giving the match to the Briscoes, even though Mark was the first one to bleed. King then grabbed the microphone and challenged the brothers to a street fight in Chicago. It was a challenge that the Briscoes were reluctant to accept.

It was back to singles action next as TV Champion Christopher Daniels, accompanied by Truth Martini, went up against Colt Cabana in a non-title match.

Lots of jaw jacking at the beginning of this one as Daniels explained why he’d joined the House of Truth. When the action finally began it was a very enjoyable match, exactly what I expected from these two.

Cabana tried to chain wrestle but Daniels countered his attempts with some good old fashioned heel antics, even frustrating the fans when he built up to certain moves but didn’t go through with them.

Cabana came back strongly, but just when it looked like he could get the win Daniels moved out of the way of his corner attack, and old boom boom found Martini’s Book of truth waiting there for him. Daniels immediately took him down with the angels wings to secure the pin. Good stuff, although it would have been nice if they’d been give more than just over ten minutes, although you can blame Daniels’ rather overlong promo for eating into their allotted time.

Tag team action resumed next as Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly took on Tag Team Champions Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team, Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, in non-title action.

This was a great opportunity for the up and comers, and although Haas and Benjamin dominated for the most part Cole and O’Reilly acquitted themselves extremely well.

The former Team Angle proved just what great wrestlers they are as they took their younger opponents apart with some sound wrestling holds, but when Cole and O’Reilly came back later in the match they put on a crisp display with their hit and run tactics, especially when they took to the air.

Experience shone through in the end though as Benjamin took Cole down with his face plant move. The champions paid tribute to their opponents afterwards.

An extremely heated encounter saw Strong and Generico putting on a brutal battle featuring great wrestling, plenty of chair shots, a couple of tables and a ton of interference

It was a great display of back and forth action. As good as he was before Strong has really upped his game since joining Martini’s men, and being part of a stable suits him, particularly in this sort of match.

As for Generico, he put in his usual performance here, with plenty of high flying stuff mixed in with quite a few stiff shots and kicks.

As expected, Michael Elgin and Christopher Daniels came down to lend their stable mate a hand, which brought Generico’s buddy Colt Cabana down. This ended up with Martini’s men being laid out at ringside after Generico launched himself over the top rope onto them.

A few minutes later, just as it looked like Generico was going to put Strong through a table with his top rope brain buster Strong stopped the masked man, putting Generico through the table himself with a top rope full nelson slam. A three count later and this awesome encounter was over.

The main event saw the Kings of Wrestling, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, accompanied by Shane Hagadorn and Sara Del Ray, taking on the American Wolves, World Champion Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards.

This was just what I expected, a tremendous match between two of the best teams in the world.

The Wolves looked like they hadn’t missed a beat, putting on a great display against their former stable mates. The Kings used Edwards as the proverbial punching bag early on, but it wasn’t long before he got the hot tag and Richards began to clean house.

After that the awesome action came thick and fast, and as the referee let the rules slide a little all four men pulled out their big moves as they went all out for the win. At one point the Wolves had a moment of miscommunication when Richards hit Edwards with a running knee while he applied his Achilles lock to Hero.

In the end though, and a day ahead of his title shot, Hero took the win, pinning Edwards after taking him down his rolling elbow strike. Afterwards Hagadorn told the Kings to inflict further damage on Edwards ahead of the title match, only for Richards to get back into the ring and stop the attack.

This didn’t sit too well with Edwards though, already annoyed at having taken the knee to the head he told Richards that he didn’t need him watching his back anymore because he was the champion. After Edwards left the ring Richards picked up the microphone, but just when it looked like he was about to respond he dropped it to the mat and went backstage.

Just one bonus feature on this DVD, 10 Questions with Grizzly Redwood.

In conclusion - I’ve got that deja-vu feeling again. It’s because I’m about to come out with all the usual stuff at the end of a Ring of Honor DVD review, because this was a great show, filled with a ton of great action from top to bottom, with the Wolves/Kings match the highlight of the night for me.

So with that being said, ROH Revolution USA gets the big thumbs up from me, and I’ll say it once again, because ROH are putting out stuff that’s far superior to WWE and TNA at the moment.

With thanks to the powers that be for supplying a copy of this release. ROH Revolution USA is available to buy online at www.rohwrestling.com.